Effective penalty reduction in an L-Band WDM system using hybrid amplifier with a dispersion-compensating module

We demonstrate the combined use of a single laser diode and a fiber ring laser for pumping a Raman-amplified dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) to upgrade an L-Band WDM transmission system at 10 Gbit/s. The broadband DCF module is placed at the output of an L-Band Erbium-doped fiber pre-amplifier, to reduce the power penalties associated to chromatic dispersion. The hybrid DCF-Raman amplifier, provided by two pump-wavelengths originated from a single pump source, permits the L-band channel allocation with efficient transmission performance through a metro-scaled (100 km) standard single mode fiber (SSMF). The performance of eight WDM channels in the L-Band is presented with nearly penalty free operation at 10 Gbit/s, which are corroborated by numerical simulation analysis. The residual power penalties obtained were either close to 1 dB or less for all channels in the L-band. The L-band hybrid pre-amplifier, composed by a single-stage EDFA and a Raman-pumped DCF module, is proposed as an alternative solution for the capacity upgrade of metropolitan WDM transmission systems.